Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Who’S To Blame? Blame Attributions And Obesity-Related Law And Policy, Lindsey E. Wylie

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Obesity is a foremost public health concern that has received considerable attention. Because of this so-named “epidemic,” law-makers are challenged with implementing effective policies that the public supports. Little is known, however, about the antecedents and consequences of these policies—especially attributions of blameworthiness. Study 1 developed the Obesity Blame Attribution Scale (OBAS). Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that controllability, responsibility and dispositional blame were separate constructs and were part of a higher-order dispositional blame factor. Situational blame was a separate higher-order factor, not correlated with dispositional blame, consisting of blame toward the food industry and towards government policy. Using the OBAS, …

Politics Or Metaphysics? On Attributing Psychological Properties To Animals, Kristin Andrews

Kristin Andrews, PhD

Following recent arguments that there is no logical problem with attributing mental or agential states to animals, I address the epistemological problem of how to go about making accurate attributions. I suggest that there is a two-part general method for determining whether a psychological property can be accurately attributed to a member of another species: folk expert opinion and functionality. This method is based on well-known assessments used to attribute mental states to humans who are unable to self-ascribe due to an early stage of development or impairment, and can be used to describe social and emotional development as well …

College Students’ Perceptions Of Individuals With Anorexia Nervosa: Irritation And Admiration, Danielle M. Geerling, Stephen M. Saunders

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Background: Stigmatizing attitudes against anorexia nervosa (AN) may act as barriers to treatment.

Aims: Evaluated college students’ perceptions of AN as compared to major depressive disorder (MDD).

Method: One-hundred two female undergraduates read vignettes describing targets with mild or severe MDD or AN, then rated biological, vanity, and self-responsibility attributions; feelings of admiration, sympathy, and anger; and behavioral dispositions toward coercion into treatment, imitation, and social distance.

Results: AN was perceived more negatively than MDD in terms of vanity attributions, self-responsibility attributions, and feelings of anger, but more positively in terms of admiration and imitation.

Conclusions …